Irish-Choctaw Famine Link

Gary Whitedeer, Choctaw, is an internationally known painter, tribal chanter and dance leader who has represented the Irish-Choctaw link on many occasions.

The Irish-Choctaw Famine Link originated when the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma’s donation was given in 1847 and reported in the Arkansas Intelligencer. The amount was $170 and is acknowledged as having been received by the Irish Relief Committee, New York (a branch of the Society of Friends (Quakers), on 19th May 1847.

What makes the Choctaw donation so remarkable is the fact that just 16 years earlier they had been forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in Mississippi to a reservation in Oklahoma.

The Choctaw were the first of the south eastern Native American Indians to be forced onto what became known as ‘The Trail of Tears’ and during the removal they lost almost half of their people. Continue reading “Irish-Choctaw Famine Link”

Events organised by AfrI in Co. Mayo

Afri organised two events on the 21st and 22nd of May  in Co. Mayo that addressed fundamental issues of economic and political justice in the world today.

The first was the annual Famine Walk from Doolough to Louisburgh, on Saturday 21st, commemorating the death of Irish people during the ‘great famine’ of the nineteenth century and highlighting the reality of hunger and food insecurity in the world today, the causes of which include war and obscene levels of military spending. This year the Famine Walk  focused especially on the question of food sovereignty, including the threats to it from increasing corporate control of the food chain and the treatment of food as just another commodity to be bought and sold. The theme of corporate power also dominated at the second event, a public meeting in Erris on Sunday 22nd, where activists from India exchanged their stories of oppression by multinational companies (especially Union Carbide and its devastation of Bhopal) with the tales of local campaigners against Shell’s unwanted and dangerous Corrib Gas pipeline. Continue reading “Events organised by AfrI in Co. Mayo”

Human Rights NGO Calls for Independent Inquiry into Policing Corrib Gas Dispute

Press Release, 7th April 2011

Justice and human rights group Action from Ireland (Afri) has backed the call for an independent international inquiry into policing of protests around the Corrib Gas project in the wake of the revelation that Gardaí joked and laughed about raping a protestor in their custody, and had previously engaged in verbal sexual abuse of a local woman. Continue reading “Human Rights NGO Calls for Independent Inquiry into Policing Corrib Gas Dispute”

Human rights group calls for suspension of Corrib gas project

PRESS RELEASE, 18 January 2010

Human rights organisation Afri is calling for a suspension of all work on the Corrib gas project in Erris, County Mayo, pending an independent and comprehensive investigation of its safety, human rights, economic and environmental dimensions. Afri is asking people to sign a petition to that effect, which will be delivered to the government next month. The petition will be launched by former UN assistant secretary-general Denis Halliday in Buswells Hotel at 11.30 on Monday January 18th.

Afri chairperson Andy Storey noted that “local people oppose the project because of the dangers it poses to their health and safety, and the way in which the policing of the project has violated their human rights. People throughout Ireland have also objected to the project on the grounds that Shell and its associates are reaping the full benefits of this gas find while the Irish people – the true owners of the resource – are left with almost nothing.” Continue reading “Human rights group calls for suspension of Corrib gas project”

‘People Crying Out for a Platform’ – Corrib Ruling Shows Need for Civic Platform

PRESS RELEASE, 16 November 2009

The recent Bord Pleanala ruling in favour of local residents in the ongoing Corrib Gas pipeline dispute highlights the need for new avenues of civic participation, according to a national peace and justice NGO, whose international patron is the distinguished Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Afri Coordinator Joe Murray says that the ruling vindicates the struggle of the local community over the past 10 years but also brings into question why they have had to endure intimidation, jail, beatings and media demonization for much of that time.

“The Corrib gas dispute in many ways tells the story of modern Ireland, where big business has colluded with soft democracy, trampling the rights of ordinary Irish citizens to fair and just treatment. The result has been an erosion of civil liberties and the emergence of corporate rule where multinationals appear to have greater rights than Irish citizens,” according to Mr. Murray. Continue reading “‘People Crying Out for a Platform’ – Corrib Ruling Shows Need for Civic Platform”

That’s Gas!

THAT’S GAS!

A night of words and music
in aid of Afri’s Rossport work

with
Paula Meehan
Dermot Bolger
(plus sons)
Jinx Lennon
Members of Kila
Donal O’Kelly & Sorcha Fox

Pom Boyd
Gina Moxley
Vincent McGrath and Pat O’Donnell of Rossport

8pm, Thursday 6th August
Sugar Club
Lr. Leeson Street, Dublin

Tickets €20 – booking: 01 8827563